3.4 Last Acquisitions
The year 1752 was a memorable year for the collection. Wilhelm bought four more Rembrandts, again capital pieces – the already mentioned Holy Family from Willem Lormier (1682–1758) and the full-length Portrait of Andries de Graeff from Gerhard Morell (c. 1710–1771), the Winter Landscape [16], Jacob Blessing Ephraim and Menasse [17], both from unknown sources.1 Finally, Wilhelm acquired the last three works by Rembrandt for his collection around 1755.2
So after 1749, i.e. after the inventory had begun, Wilhelm bought many more paintings by Rembrandt than in the period before. The ratio is 10 to 24. If we look at the purchases mathematically, the growing number of Rembrandts towards the end of his life becomes even clearer. Thanks to Jan van Gool (1685–1763), we know that Wilhelm already had a small cabinet of paintings by 1716.3 We can take this year as a starting point. Wilhelm wrote to his friend Baron Heinrich Jakob von Häckel (c. 1682–1760) on 26 May 1750: ‘The number of my collection has reached 527 paintings without the portraits. Among them, however, are “creti and pleti“ [= every Tom, Dick and Harry], but the quite good ones […] amount to 200 or 300’.4 In May 1750, that is before the acquisitions of the ‘annus mirabilis’, there were 10 Rembrandts among these 527 works, i.e. a share of 1,9 %.
Wilhelm continued to collect until 1756. At the end of his life the inventory listed 869 paintings plus 99 portraits. In total, 342 additional paintings have been acquired from summer 1750 until 1756, among them 24 Rembrandts (7 %). The total number of 34 Rembrandts among 869 paintings made up 3,9 %. In general, we could assume that more expensive works were acquired in these final years, including Rubens’ Triumph of the Victor for 5,000 guilders in 1750 (together with Teniers’ The ‘Oude Voetboog’ Guild on the Grote Markt), or Titian’s (1488/90–1576) full-length Portrait of a Noble Man in 1756 for 1,140 livres (c. 2,500 guilders). Especially in the case of Rembrandt, the last acquisitions were the most expensive ones.
Where did Landgrave Wilhelm get so much money? Apart from his art purchases, he was able to finance the charming Rococo palace Wilhelmsthal according to the plans by François de Cuvilliés I (1695-1768), as well as the gallery building designed by the same architect.5 The answer is not easy to give, as the financial system of his time is quite complex and does not allow fast conclusions. But, as already indicated above, the fact that huge amounts of subsidies were paid to the landgrave in 1747 and 1755, and that much less money was needed to be sent to Sweden after the death of Wilhelm’s brother, certainly favored his collecting activity.
Within three years, from 1750 to 1752, Wilhelm achieved to bring his collection to an internationally high level. It is certainly no coincidence that during this period he took over the official position as reigning Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel after the death of his elder brother Friedrich I in April 1751. Wilhelm's collecting activity is therefore not only an example of taste and connoisseurship, but also has a very strong political background. He wanted to establish himself among the leading princes in Germany and had to compete with collectors such as Duke Anton Ulrich von Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel (1633–1714) , Prince-elector Jan Willem in Düsseldorf or Prince-elector Friedrich August II of Saxony (1696-1763) in Dresden.6 When Landgrave Wilhelm's political efforts to raise his status during the War of the Austrian Succession failed in his military actions, he intensified his activities in the arts to demonstrate that, at least in this respect, he showed the same grandeur as the Electors. During these years, the plan for a separate gallery building was also implemented.
16
Rembrandt
Winter landscape, dated 1646
Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel), inv./cat.nr. GK 241
17
Rembrandt
Jacob blessing Manasseh and Ephraim, dated 1656
Kassel, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel), inv./cat.nr. GK 249
Notes
1 Weber et al. 2006, cat. no. 30 and 31.
2 Weber et al. 2006, cat. no. 32–34.
3 Schnackenburg 1991, p. 19.
4 ‘Die anzahl meiner Schildereyen überhaupt gehet auf 527 stück ohne die portraits. Darunter sind aber creti und pleti gerechnet, die recht guten aber, ohngeachtet sie sich nicht eigentlich ausziehen lassen, gehen auf 200 oder 300 und diese können sich vor meister und gesellen sehen lassen’, Drach 1888, p. XLI.
5 On Wilhelmsthal: Eberle 2020.
6 Weddigen 2012.